Businessman gets 5 years in Synagro case

http://www.freep.com/article/20091113/NEWS01/91113017/1320/Businessman-gets-5-years-in-Synagro-case
[reprinted under fair use]
 
 Nov. 13, 2009 | Updated: 5:07 p.m. Nov. 13, 2009
"Businessman gets 5 years in Synagro case
BY BEN SCHMITT AND JOE SWICKARD
 

FREE PRESS
 
 Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson, a key figure in the Synagro sludge-hauling scandal in Detroit, was sentenced this afternoon to the maximum prison sentence he could receive under his guilty plea -- five years.

 
 
Jackson, 44, had previously pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit bribery before U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, who today rejected a request from Jackson’s lawyer that he be given only two years in prison.

Defense lawyer Richard Morgan said that Synagro “should be standing here, and they’re not.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bullotta disputed defense claims that Jackson was somehow lured into the bribery scheme. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he told the judge. He also challenged the claim that, for all its notoriety, the now-canceled Synagro contract with the city would have ultimately benefited Detroiters. “It was all about Rayford Jackson,” Bullotta said. "He stood to make millions.”

In dispensing the maximum sentence, Judge Cohn noted with displeasure the defendant’s refusal to acknowledge his wrongdoing, even after he admitted to his misdeeds. “Mr. Jackson has not displayed contrition and remorse and he has not apologized,” Cohn said.

But the judge added, Jackson, who has refused to cooperate with investigators in the ongoing probe, still has an opportunity to improve his fate. He instructed Jackson that if he decides to cooperate with the feds within the first year of his prison term, the length of his sentence could be revisited.

“There’s still an opportunity for you to express contrition and remorse in the form of cooperation,” he said.

Jackson, a flashy entrepreneur who traveled through Detroit political circles with an attractive young television anchorwoman on his arm, arrived in court this afternoon dapper – and silent – as ever. He wore a dark, double-breasted pinstriped suit and a black bowler with a jaunty feather, which he wore into the courtroom.

Bullotta said Jackson “and Jackson alone decided to bribe Monica Conyers,” the former Detroit city councilwoman who herself is awaiting sentencing in January for her role in the Synagro scandal.

Bullotta said the evidence showed Jackson was operating actively and independently because he did not tell disgraced Synagro official James Rosendall about bribing Conyers until after Jackson had done so. Jackson, the prosecutor said, operated out of “pure greed.”

Jackson is slated to report to prison on Jan. 15.

After the verdict, U.S. District Attorney Terrence Berg said, “I hope this will be a deterrent to anyone considering any type of similar conduct in the form of bribing public officials.”

After issuing the sentence, Cohn took time to commend the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office and likened their efforts to Hercules, who in Greek mythology cleaned the stables of Augean stables full of thousands of cattle in a single day."

[Fwd: TCEQ ASARCO (El Paso) Update]

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We have added the following comment to the ASARCO web page.
On June 5, 2009, the bankruptcy court approved the settlement agreement concerning the El Paso Smelter and the Amarillo Smelter Sites.  On November 13, 2009, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division, issued an order confirming the plan of reorganization put forth by Americas Mining Corporation, the parent corporation of the debtor.  This plan implements the settlement referenced above that places $52,080,000 in an environmental custodial trust to address remedial activities. 

This service is provided to you at no charge by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Visit us on the web at www.tceq.state.tx.us.

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El Paso ASARCO illegally and secretly burned Toxic waste for years

"RCRA makes it a crime for a person to knowingly treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste without a permit. 42 U.S.C. § 6928(d)(2)."

So why isn't someone in Jail, after El Paso ASARCO (and E. Helena MT Asarco) illegally and secretly burned Toxic waste for years?

And, why is there a Swiss Bank named ASARCO A.G. (Asarco S.A., Asarco Inc.)??

Why won't the Federal DOJ Bankruptcy Trustee require that the Bankruptcy Court considers ALL liabilities for ASARCO -- i.e. the liabilities from years of secretly burning military and industrial toxic wastes for profit?

What in the heck is going on?

When EPA tries to do its job, it is labeled "Activist"

"Gov. Rick Perry, who appoints the state panel's three commissioners,
has called the EPA an activist agency that could derail Texas' economy."

Umm, you mean the plans for Grupo Mexico and Verde groups first planned
international city in the shadow of the Asarco El Paso stacks ---- in
the middle of this toxic disaster and the massive cancer-zone?

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/2009/11/15/1115epa.html

Sham Recycling leads to Sham Asarco bankruptcy and sham decisions

• Why won't the Dept. of Justice Bankruptcy Trustee require that the Bankruptcy court consider the liabilities from the secret military and industrial wastes illegally burned at Asarco El Paso and E. Helena for many years?
• Isn't it illegal to not require full disclosure of the toxic wastes in the Asarco bankruptcy? 
  
• Why won't the news disclose how Carlyle Group owns 20% of Grupo Mexico?
• Why did the EPA report that the Beta Radiation levels in El Paso just before Asarco shut down were the highest in the USA?
  
• The shut down occurred soon after the TCEQ made an abrupt decision to not bring nuclear wastes to this region for disposal, after all.
  
• Why weren't we told the truth for eight years (from 1998 to 2006), and why are the government and attorneys acting as if that secret document is not now public??
  
• Why won't the government disclose what poisons are still here from those activities?
• Why does Grupo Mexico plan to bid on a Pacific coast seaport - to run it for 50 years and bring rail freight through a port of entry about only ten miles from the Asarco El Paso epicenter?  How could such construction and planning be done if the true extent of the toxic-waste contamination were exposed?
• What happened here?!?
  

Google News Alert for: asarco bankruptcy

Grupo Mexico Chairman Gets Long-Awaited Prize Wall Street Journal "A full payment is a rare species in bankruptcy," said Jack Kinzie of Baker Botts LLP, who had argued that Sterlite should take Asarco out of bankruptcy. ... See all stories on this topic

"Ten years after launching a hostile takeover of U.S. copper refiner Asarco LLC and four years after forcing it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Mexican billionaire Germán Larrea Mota-Velasco [AND CARLYLE GROUP - THEY OWN 20% of GRUPO MEXICO] finally has what he wanted: control of the copper giant free from the threat of environmental and asbestos litigation.

The Grupo Mexico SAB chairman also will rule over one of the world's largest copper producers in terms of known ore reserves, adding Asarco's mines to properties Mr. Larrea operates in Mexico and Peru."

Sham Recycling leads to Sham Bankruptcy

And still the Dept. of Justice Bankruptcy Trustee fails to make the Bankruptcy Court consider liabilities from the years of illegal secret military & industrial waste burning at Asarco El Paso and E. Helena MT.

Why?!




Google Web Alert for: Asarco

Grupo Mexico should control Asarco, judge rules Nov 14, 2009 ... Grupo Mexico should control Asarco, judge rules, A US District Court judge has ruled Grupo Mexico SAB should regain control of bankrupt ...

"A U.S. District Court judge has ruled Grupo Mexico SAB should regain control of bankrupt Tucson copper miner Asarco LLC.

The ruling, issued Friday night by Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas, comes after months of legal battles between Grupo, Asarco's estranged parent company, and competitor Sterlite Industries Ltd."